A Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officer Takunda Lawrence Madamombe (22) yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court charged with burning a Zupco bus and stealing a motor cycle during the recent nationwide protests economic hardships.
Madamombe who is attached to the Presidential Guard, State House, pleaded not guilty to the charge when he appeared before provincial magistrate Francis Mapfumo. He is charged together with, Dennis Maguri (29) of Rydle Ridge Park and Kudakwashe Gapare (22) of Whitecliff North, who also pleaded not guilty to the charge.
On January 14, at around 10am Madamombe and his accomplices together with 200 others still at large, were at Whitehouse Shopping Centre along the Harare-Bulawayo Road where they connived to engage in acts of public violence. They allegedly barricaded roads with boulders, burnt tyres and threw missiles at the motoring public after which they stopped a Zupco bus with registration number AEG 3955 which was proceeding to Harare.
It is the state’s case that they ordered the bus crew and its passengers to disembark after which one Emmanuel Chari, who is already in prison over the same matter, drove the bus and parked it about 40 metres away from the main road where it was set ablaze.
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